Since the first organized independent TEA Party events that began on April 15, 2009, there have been many smaller groups that have spawned and formed. Some of these groups are a bit out there for me yet others have a wealth of information that I am so enjoying as I rediscover my American History.
For all of you who shared in my painful high school experience of History at Roosevelt High, I am sorry we missed so much information under the hands of such old and lifeless teachers. Our school did us a disservice, yet, we were not alone. There was a whole society making decisions to departmentalize the teaching of American history rather than teaching it from a biographical view. We learned the dates, the events, the time lines but we never got a grasp on who these great leaders were and why they were willing to give up everything, their reputations, their status, their livelihood, their wealth, even their lives in the pursuit of happiness not only for them but for ALL of us. Men like these are few and far between. I pray we see the selflessness of these heroes again, but we as a society are less God centered and more self-centered and heroes come from selfless people, not selfish ones.One of the off-shoots of information I have found has come from a facebook group called, the Federalists Papers. This group is studying and discussing the Federalist Papers, what Thomas Jefferson called the best commentary ever written about the principles of government. The writer has taken a person from history and focuses on a quote or writing of theirs to share with others in open discussion. This facebook page just recently starting posting but I will be adding to this blog page as the facebook page adds new comments. I also will add little bits of information that I want you all to know as well so I will keep updating this blog entry. I hope you enjoy it and will learn a thing or two about our founders. If you are from my generation, I think you will be surprised by how much was left out of our history books.
JOHN ADAMS
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion." With these sober words, President John Adams warned that the U.S. Constitution will not be able to sustain our liberties if the American people abandon virtue and religion. - John Adams_________________________________________
In letters to Abigail Adams, "But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." - John Adams
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"It is the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping GOD in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship" - John Adams
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"Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it" - John Adams
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"The general principles on which the founding fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God" - John Adams
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"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - John Adams
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"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If `Thou shalt not covet' and `Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free." - John Adams
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest." - Benjamin Franklin_________________________________________
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. - Benjamin Franklin
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I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. - Benjamin Franklin
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" Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power, and the love of money. Separately each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men, a post of honour that shall be at the same time a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it." - Benjamin Franklin @ the Constitutional Convention
_________________________________________"Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin
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"I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men, and if a sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?" - Benjamin Franklin
_________________________________________SAMUEL ADAMS
If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of Almighty God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave. - Samuel Adams
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The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. - Samuel Adams
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On voting: "He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man...The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people." - Samuel Adams
"Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience, direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum." - Samuel Adams
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"Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience, direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum." - Samuel Adams
"A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.... While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security." - Samuel Adams
_________________________________________THOMAS PAINE
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - Thomas Paine
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"The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum." - Thomas Paine
"The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum." - Thomas Paine
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"Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness." - Thomas Paine
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GEORGE WASHINGTON
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. - George Washington
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"It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it." - George Washington
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"It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it." - George Washington
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"The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments" - George Washington
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"A people... who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything." - George Washington
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." - George Washington
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"Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself, they are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence … from the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable … the very atmosphere of firearms anywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that's good." - George Washington
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All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity." - George Washington
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"While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian." - George Washington
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The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men. - Alexander Hamilton_________________________________________
"The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right.” - Alexander Hamilton
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"Ah, this is the constitution," he said. "Now, mark my words. So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instrument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt, it will bind no longer" - Alexander Hamilton
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In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution. - Alexander Hamilton
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"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests." - Alexander Hamilton (Statement after the Constitutional Convention - 1787)
_________________________________________“Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have is this. When I have a subject in mind. I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it... the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.” - Alexander Hamilton
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A fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to abuse it, when acquired." - Alexander Hamilton
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The solid reputation of Alexander Hamilton places him among but a handful of figures in the history of America. No single figure was ever a stronger advocate of our Constitution; and only a few people have made a comparable contribution to the substance of American government. Because of his fame, few Americans have been as widely controversial as Hamilton. To this day, his importance remains unsurpassed in the areas of sharp finance, principled politics, romantic scandal, hard work, intellectual acuteness, and bravery. Hamilton’s visage on the $10 bill is the only non-presidential face besides Benjamin Franklin to appear on our common currency.
A chronology of his life:
Alexander Hamilton was born as a British subject on the island of Nevis in the West Indies on the 11th of January 1755. His father was James Hamilton, a Scottish merchant of St. Christopher. His grandfather was Alexander Hamilton, of Grange, Lanarkshire. One of his great grandfathers was Sir R. Pollock, the Laird of Cambuskeith. Hamilton’s mother was Rachael Fawcette Levine, of French Huguenot descent. When she was very young, she married a Danish proprietor of St. Croix named John Michael Levine. Ms. Levine left her husband and was later divorced from him on June 25, 1759. Under Danish law, the (the court ordering the divorce) Ms. Levine was forbidden from remarrying. Thus, Hamilton’s birth was illegitimate. Alexander Hamilton had one brother, James Hamilton.
Heavy burdens fell upon Hamilton’s shoulders during childhood. Business failures caused Hamilton’s father to become bankrupt. Soon thereafter, his mother died in 1768. At twelve, Alexander entered the counting house of Nicholas Cruger and David Beekman. There, young Alexander served as a clerk and apprentice. At the age of fifteen, Mr. Cruger left Alexander in charge of the business. Early on, Hamilton wished to increase his opportunities in life. This is evidenced by a letter written to his friend Edward Stevens at the age of fourteen on Nov. 11, 1769 where he stated, "[m]y ambition is prevalent, so that I contemn the groveling condition of a clerk or the like … and would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station."
During adolescence, Hamilton had few opportunities for regular schooling. However, he possessed a commanding knowledge of French, due to the teaching of his late mother. This was a very rare trait in the English continental colonies. Hamilton was first published in the Royal Danish-American Gazette with his description of the terrible hurricane of August 30th, 1772 that gutted Christiansted. Impressed by this, an opportunity to gain his education was provided by family friends. Seizing this, Hamilton arrived the grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey in the autumn of 1772. One year later, in 1774, Hamilton graduated and entered King’s College in New York City. There, Hamilton obtained a bachelor’s of arts degree in just one year.
As the War of Independence began, Hamilton took a trip to Boston, which seems to have solidified his loyalties with the colonists. At a mass meeting held in the fields in New York City on July 6, 1774, he made a sensational speech attacking British policies. In addition, he wrote a series of letters for John Holt’s New-York Journal. When an Anglican clergyman, Samuel Seabury, denounced the first Continental Congress in several Westchester Farmer letters, Hamilton replied with two powerful pamphlets.
His military aspirations also flowered with a series of early accomplishments. At King’s College he joined a patriot volunteer band known as the "Corsicans" and drilled every morning before classes. In August of 1775, the "Corsicans" participated in a raid to seize the cannon from the Battery. On March 14th, 1776, he was commissioned captain of a company of artillery set up by the New York Providential Congress. Some sources state that Hamilton’s company participated at the Battle of Long Island in August of 1776. At White plains, in October of 1776, his battery guarded Chatterton’s Hill and protected the withdrawal of William Smallwood’s militia. On January 3, 1777, Hamilton’s military reputation won the interest of General Nathaniel Greene. His cannon were brought to rear on Nassau Hall, and Hamilton gave the order to fire when the British troops there refused to surrender. Impressed by this, General Greene introduced the young Captain to General Washington.
The proficiency and bravery Hamilton displayed around New York City impressed General Washington. He joined Washington’s personal staff in March of 1777 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He served four years as Washington’s personal secretary and confidential aide. Hamilton’s military fervor continued in his position next to Washington. At the Battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778), Hamilton again proved his bravery and leadership. He warned the retreating General Charles Lee that a troop of British cavalry would soon be in a position to counterattack and was authorized to give the order. Hamilton rallied the fleeing men, who turned upon the British and swept them with a withering fire. At the court martial of Lee that followed, Hamilton testified against the General. He declared that he "seemed to be under a hurry of mind," and that, while his men retreated, he sat on his horse, "doing nothing that I saw." Lee, in turn, accused Hamilton of being hotheaded and in "a sort of frenzy of valor."
Hamilton, however, remained ambitious for military glory. He became impatient in his position of dependence and used a slight reprimand from Washington as an excuse for leaving his staff position in February of 1781. He secured a field command through Washington and won laurels at Yorktown (Sept. – Oct. 1781), where he led the American column in a final assault in the British works.
As the need for the military diminished, Hamilton acquired a domestic life. On Dec. 14, 1780, he married Elizabeth, the daughter of General Philip Schuyler. The Schuylers were one of the most distinguished families in New York. Hamilton and Elizabeth eventually had eight children. Here, Elizabeth is pictured to the left, with her father and mother to the right.
At twenty-five, Hamilton began his popular political efforts from which his greatest fame arises. In letters dated from 1779 to 1780 he correctly diagnosed the ills of the new Confederation and suggested the necessity of centralization. He was also one of the first to suggest adequate checks on the anarchic tendencies of the time.
At twenty-seven, with the Revolutionary War over, Hamilton began a non-military career. After three months of intensive study of the law in Albany, New York, Hamilton was admitted to the bar in July of 1783. Then, after the British army evacuated New York City, he opened his law office at 57 Wall Street. Hamilton also continued with his political endeavors. He served in Congress from 1782 to 1783, was elected to the Continental Congress, and founded the Bank of New York in February of 1784.
Once elected, Hamilton remained politically active all of his life. He prepared but did not present a proposal calling for a convention with full powers to revise the Articles of Confederation. Instead, he became one of the prime movers for calling the Annapolis Convention. At the Annapolis Convention in September of 1786, Hamilton served as one of three delegates from New York. He supported Madison in inducing the Convention to exceed its delegated powers and personally drafted the call to summon the Federal Convention of May 1787 at Philadelphia. At that Convention, Hamilton again represented New York as one of three delegates.
Hamilton’s own presence at the Convention was limited. His colleagues from New York represented converse political views from Hamilton. They chose to withdraw from the convention, leaving New York without an official delegation and Hamilton without a vote. However, he did make one remarkable speech on June 18th, 1787. In this he attacked the states’ rights proposal of William Paterson. In this speech he upheld the British government as the best model from the world for the colonists to use. He advocated that the best solution lied in an aristocratic, strongly centralized, coercive, but representative union with devices that would give weight to class and property. Apart from this, Hamilton was largely absent from the convention, having left on June 30, 1787. Washington wrote him saying, "I am sorry you went away. I wish you were back." At the close of the Convention, Hamilton returned to sign the Constitution for his state.
Hamilton immediately used his talents to secure the adoption of the Constitution. Hamilton was the first to publish a letter in the Constitution’s defense. This article was published in the New York Independent Journal on Oct. 2, 1787, only two weeks after the Constitution was signed. He was one of three authors of The Federalist. This work remains a classic commentary on American constitutional law and the principals of government. Its inception and approximately three-quarters of the work are attributable to Hamilton (the rest belonging to John Jay and James Madison). Hamilton also won the New York ratification convention vote for the Constitution against great odds in July 17-July 26, 1788. Chancellor James Kent stated that "all of the documentary proof and the current observation of the time lead us to the conclusion that he surpassed all of his contemporaries in his exertions to create, recommend, adopt and defend the Constitution of the United States."
During Washington’s presidency, Hamilton became the first secretary of the Treasury. In this position he secured the traditional strength of American finance. He is chiefly responsible for establishing the credit of the United States, both at home and abroad. His Report on the Public Credit, Jan. 14, 1790, constituted a watershed in American history. It marked an end of an era of bankruptcy and repudiation. His Report on a National Bank, Dec. 13, 1790, advocated a private bank with semipublic functions and was patterned after the Bank of England. His Report on Manufacturers, 1791, itself entitles Hamilton to a position as an epoch economist. It was the first great revolt from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776). It, in part, argued for a system of moderate protective duties associated with a deliberate policy of promoting national interests. The inspirations from this work became England’s official economic policy and remain the primary foundation of the German economic system. His masterly opinion on the implied powers of the Constitution persuaded Washington of the Constitutionality of the bank. Hamilton’s views were adopted almost word for word in McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316, 4 L.Ed. 579, 4 Wheat. 316 (1819).
Hamilton sometimes overstepped the limits of his office in interfering with other departments. For instance, serious differences between Jefferson and Hamilton developed in the field of foreign affairs. When the French Revolution turned into war against all of Europe, and the French Republic sought to involve the United States, Hamilton advocated strict neutrality, which Washington proclaimed on April 22, 1793. Hamilton defended the proclamation in his "Pacifist" letters and attacked two succeeding French prime ministers for their interference in American domestic affairs. The United States has retained this policy of neutrality in foreign affairs to this day.
Hamilton also became the esteemed leader of one of the two great political parties of the time, the Federalists. Once after a political victory achieved through a series of letters known as the "Camillus essays," (1795-96) Jefferson wrote despairingly about Hamilton to Madison saying that Hamilton was "really a colossus to the anti-republican party."
On January 31, 1795 Hamilton resigned from his position of Secretary of the Treasury and returned to the practice of law in New York. Despite his resignation, Hamilton remained Washington’s chief advisor through a continual interchange of letters between the two men. Typical of the relationship, Hamilton wrote Washington’s Farewell Address in 1796.
Two years later, Hamilton returned to military service at the age of forty-three. Here, he served as active head of the army under Washington that was organized for the impending war with France. Washington himself insisted that Hamilton serve in that position as a condition of accepting the position. Hamilton served from July 25, 1798 to June 2, 1800.
After the death of George Washington, the leadership of the Federalist Party became divided between John Adams and Hamilton. John Adams had the prestige from his varied and great career and from his great strength with the people. Conversely, Hamilton controlled practically all of the leaders of lesser rank and the greater part of the most distinguished men in the country.
Hamilton, by himself, was not a leader for the population. Hamilton himself once said that his heart was ever the master of his judgment. He was indiscreet in utterance, impolitic in management, opinionated, self-confident, and uncompromising in nature and methods. Three times Hamilton used the political fortunes of John Adams in presidential elections as a mere hazard in his maneuvers. After Adams became President Hamilton constantly advised the members of the cabinet and endeavored to control Adams’s policy. On the eve of the presidential election of 1800, Hamilton wrote a bitter personal attack on the president that contained much confidential cabinet information. Although this pamphlet was intended for private circulation, the document was secured and published by Aaron Burr, Hamilton’s political and legal rival.
Hamilton seems to have read Burr’s character correctly from the beginning. Based on his opinion of Burr, Hamilton deemed it his patriotic duty to thwart Burr’s ambitions. First, Hamilton defeated Burr’s hopes of successfully completing a foreign mission. Later, Hamilton ended Burr’s goal of attaining the presidency. In the election, Burr was tied in votes for the presidency with Jefferson. Thus, the final vote was thrown onto the lame-duck House of Representatives, which was strongly Federalist. Hamilton urged the House to side with Jefferson, who consequently won the election. Last, Burr wished to attain the governorship of New York. Failing to get the Republican nomination, Burr solicited the aide of the Federalists. Hamilton denounced Burr as "a man of irregular and unsatiable ambition … who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government." The denunciations seem to have been largely ignored by Burr until this last defeat. After that, Burr forced a quarrel between the two stating that Hamilton said he had a "despicable" opinion of Burr. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. Before going to this confrontation, Hamilton wrote a letter stating that a compliance with the dueling prejudices of the time was inseparable from the ability to be in future useful in public affairs. The duel was fought at Weehawken on the New Jersey shore of the Hudson River opposite New York City. At forty-nine, Hamilton was shot, fell mortally wounded, and died the following day, July 12th, 1804. It is unanimously reported that Hamilton himself did not intend to fire, his pistol going off involuntarily as he fell. Hamilton was apparently opposed to dueling following the fatal shooting of his son Philip in a duel in 1801. Further, Hamilton told the minister who attended him as he laid dying, “I have no ill-will against Col. Burr. I met him with a fixed resolution to do him no harm. I forgive all that happened.” Hamilton’s death was very generally deplored as a national calamity.
A summary of his beliefs:
Hamilton’s mind was eminently legal. His writings are distinguished by their clarity, vigor and rigid reasoning rather than any show of scholarship. In his earliest writings of 1774-75, he started out with the ordinary pre-Revolutionary War Whig doctrines of natural rights and liberty. After the War’s conclusion, his experiences of semi-archaic states’ rights and individualism ended his earlier fervor. Hamilton saw the feeble inadequacies of conception, the infirmity of power, factional jealousy, disintegrating particularism, and vicious finances that marred the Confederation. No other author saw more clearly the concrete nationalistic remedies for these concrete ills or pursued remedial ends so constantly and consistently as Hamilton. He wanted a strong union and energetic government that should "rest as much as possible on the shoulders of the people and as little as possible on those of the state legislatures."
As early as 1776, he urged the direct collection of federal taxes by federal agents. In 1781 he created the idea that a non-excessive public debt would be a blessing. He conceived the constitutional doctrines of liberal construction, "implied powers," and the "general welfare," which were later embodied in the decisions of John Marshall.
Liberty, he reminded his fellows, in the New York Convention of 1788, seemed to be the only consideration for the new government. Hamilton pointed out another thing of equal importance; "a principal of strength and stability in the organization … and of vigour in its operation."
Hamilton’s notion of a strong national government did err on the side of oppression at times. This is best evidenced by his warm support for the final form of the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798. Hamilton did not agree with Jefferson that the general public should control government. "Men," he said, "are reasoning rather than reasonable animals." His last letter on politics, written two days before his death, illustrates the two sides of his thinking already emphasized; in this letter he warns his New England friends against dismemberment of the union as "a clear sacrifice of great positive advantages, without any counterbalancing good; administering no relief to our real disease, which is democracy, the poison of which, by a subdivision, will only be more concentrated in each part, and consequently the more virulent."
No judgment of Hamilton is more justly measured than James Madison’s written in 1831. "That he possessed intellectual powers of the first order, and the moral qualities of integrity and honor in a captivating degree, has been awarded him by a suffrage now universal. If his theory of government deviated from the republican standard he had the candour to avow it, and the greater merit of co-operating faithfully in maturing and supporting a system which was not his.
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"By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty." - Samuel Chase_________________________________________
THOMAS JEFFERSON
At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. - Thomas Jefferson_________________________________________
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NOAH WEBSTER"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends & books." - Thomas Jefferson
_________________________________________"But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years." - Thomas Jefferson
"Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government." - Thomas Jefferson
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"Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government." - Thomas Jefferson
“When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.”
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"It is admitted that all men have an equal right to the enjoyment of their life, property and personal security; and it is the duty as it is the object, of government to protect every man in this enjoyment." - Noah Webster_________________________________________
ROGER SHERMAN
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All civil rights and the right to hold office were to be extended to persons of any Christian denomination.” - Roger Sherman
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GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
[F]or avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy . . . the only ground of hope must be on the morals of the people. I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals and that morals are the only possible support of free governments. [T]herefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God." - Gouverneur Morris_________________________________________
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A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people. - James Madison
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"Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense." - James Madison
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"Conscience is the most sacred of all property." - James Madison
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BIOGRAPHY OF JAMES MADISON
James Madison grew up on a plantation called Montpelier in Virginia. This would eventually become his home. He studied under an influential tutor named Donald Robertson and then the Reverend Thomas Martin. He attended the College of New Jersey which would become Princeton, graduating in two years. He was an excellent student and studied subjects ranging from Latin to geography to philosophy.
Father: James Madison, Sr. - Plantation owner.
Mother: Eleanor Rose Conway – born to a wealthy planter, she lived to be 98.
Siblings: Three brothers and three sisters.
Wife: Dolley Payne Todd – a widow when she married Madison. She was a well-liked hostess throughout Jefferson's and Madison's time in office. She was tenacious, not leaving the White House during the War of 1812 until she ensured that many national treasures were saved.
Children: Only Dolley's son from her first marriage.
James Madison's Career Before the Presidency:
Madison was a delegate to the Virginia Convention (1776) and served in the Virginia House of Delegates three times(1776-77; 1784-86; 1799-1800). Before becoming a member of the Continental Congress (1780-83), he on the Council of State in Virginia (1778-79). He called for the Constitutional Convention in 1786. He served as a US Representative from 1789-97. He drafted the Virginia Resolutions in 1798 in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. He was Secretary of State from 1801-09.
Father of the Constitution:
Madison wrote most of the US Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Even though he would later write the Virginia Resolutions which were hailed by anti-federalists, his Constitution created a strong federal government. Once the Convention ended, he along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton wrote the Federalist Papers, essays that were intended to sway public opinion to ratifying the new Constitution.
Election of 1808:
Jefferson supported Madison's nomination to run in 1808. George Clinton was chosen to be his Vice President. He ran against Charles Pinckney who opposed Jefferson in 1804. The campaign centered around Madison's role with the embargo that had been enacted during Jefferson's presidency. Madison had been the Secretary of State and had argued for the unpopular embargo. However, Madison was able to win with 122 of the 175 electoral votes.
Election of 1812:
Madison easily won the renomination for the Democratic-Republicans. He was opposed by DeWitt Clinton. The campaign's main issue was the War of 1812. Clinton tried to appeal to both those for and against the war. Madison won with 128 out of 146 votes.
War of 1812:
The British were impressing American sailors and seizing goods. Madison asked Congress to declare war, although support was anything but unanimous. America began poorly with General William Hull surrendering Detroit without a fight. America did well on the seas and eventually retook Detroit. The British were able to march on Washington and burn the White House. However, by 1814, the US and Great Britain agreed to the Treaty of Ghent which resolved none of the pre-war issues.
Post Presidential Period:
Madison retired to his plantation in Virginia. However, he still stayed involved in political discourse. He represented his county at the Virginia Constitutional Convention (1829). He also spoke against nullification, the idea that states could rule federal laws unconstitutional. His Virginia Resolutions were often cited as a precedent for this but he believed in the strength of the union above all. He also helped found the American Colonization Society to help resettle freed blacks in Africa.
Historical Significance:
James Madison was in power during an important time. Even though America did not end the War of 1812 as the ultimate "victor," it did end with a stronger and independent economy. As the author of the Constitution, decisions made during his time as president were based on his interpretation of the document. He was well respected in his time for not only authoring the document but also administering it.
Events and Accomplishments of James Madison's Presidency:
At the beginning of Madison's administration, he attempted to enforce the Non-Intercourse Act. This allowed the US to trade with all nations except France and Great Britain because of the attacks on American shipping by those two nations. Madison offered to trade with either nation if it would stop harassing American ships. However, neither agreed. In 1810, Macon's Bill No. 2 was passed that repealed the Non-Intercourse Act and instead said that whichever nation would stop harassing American ships would be favored and the US would stop trading with the other nation. France agreed to this and the British continued to stop American ships and impress sailors.
As previously described, America participated in the War of 1812, sometimes called the Second War of Independence, during Madison's time in office. This name did not necessarily come from the treaty that was signed to end the war which virtually changed nothing between the two nations. Instead, it had more to do with the end of economic dependence on Great Britain.
Support for the War of 1812 was not unanimous and in fact, the New England Federalists met at the Hartford Convention in 1814 to discuss this. There was even talk of secession at the convention.
In the end, Madison attempted to follow the Constitution and tried not to overstep the boundaries set before him as he interpreted them. This is not surprising since he was the primary author of the document.
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JOHN JAY BIOGRAPHY
His paternal grandfather, Augustus (1665-1751), established the Jay family's presence in America. Unable to remain in France when the rights of Protestants were abolished by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Augustus eventually settled in New York where, with an advantageous marriage and a thriving mercantile business, he established a strong foundation for his descendants. His son Peter, like Augustus a merchant, had ten children with his wife Mary Van Cortlandt, seven of them surviving into adulthood. John was the sixth of these seven. Shortly after John's birth, his family moved from Manhattan to Rye in order to provide a more salubrious environment for the raising of John's elder siblings, two of whom had been struck by blindness following the smallpox epidemic of 1739 and two others of whom suffered from mental handicaps.
Educated in his early years by private tutors, Jay entered the newly-founded King's College, the future Columbia University, in the late summer of 1760. There, he underwent the conventional classical education, graduating in 1764, when he became a law clerk in the office of Benjamin Kissam. On admission to the bar in 1768 Jay established a legal practice with Robert R. Livingston, Jr., scion of the "Lower Manor" branch of the Livingston family, before operating his own law office from 1771. Among other tasks during these years, Jay served as clerk of the New York-New Jersey Boundary Commission.
In the spring of 1774, Jay's life took two momentous turns. In April he married Sarah Livingston (1756-1802), the daughter of New Jersey Governor William Livingston, thus gaining important connections to a politically powerful Colonial family. In May he was swept into New York politics, largely as a result of the worsening relations with Great Britain. New York conservatives, seeking to outmaneuver more radical responses to the Intolerable Acts, nominated a "committee of 50," including Jay, to arrange the election of delegates to a Continental Congress. Throughout the revolutionary struggle, Jay followed a course of moderation, separating himself clearly from loyalists but resisting what he considered the extremism of more radical politicians. Thus, in the months before Independence he favored exploring the possibilities of rapprochement fully, helping to draft the Olive Branch Petition as a delegate to the second Continental Congress. As a delegate to the New York Convention of 1776-77, Jay had a formative influence in shaping the new state's constitution. Jay remained an important actor at the state level, becoming the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court before moving to the national arena to assume the Presidency of Congress in late 1778.
The fall of 1779 found Jay selected for a mission to Spain, where he spent a frustrating three years seeking diplomatic recognition, financial support and a treaty of alliance and commerce. He was to spend the next four years abroad in his nation's service both as commissioner to Spain and then in Paris, where he was a member of the American delegation that negotiated the peace terms ending America's War of Independence with Britain. This process culminated with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September 1783.
He returned to the United States in July, 1784 to discover that he had, in his absence, been elected Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In that role he was confronted by difficult issues stemming from violations of the Treaty of Paris by both countries — issues that he would later revisit in negotiations with Britain in 1794 and which would be addressed again in the resulting "Jay Treaty." Beyond his dealings with Great Britain, Jay succeeded in having the French accept a revised version of the Consular Convention that Franklin had earlier negotiated; he attempted to negotiate a treaty with Spain in which commercial benefits would have been exchanged for a renunciation of American access to the Mississippi for a number of years; and he endeavored, with limited resources, to secure the freedom of Americans captured and held for ransom in Algiers by so-called Barbary pirates. The frustrations he suffered as Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a post he held until 1789, clearly impressed upon him the need to construct a government more powerful than that under the Articles of Confederation. Though not selected to attend the Philadelphia Convention, he was a leading proponent of the principles that the new Constitution embodied and played a critical role in its ratification.
In 1787 and 1788 Jay collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison on the Federalist, authoring essays numbers two, three, four, five and, following an illness, sixty-four, thus contributing to the political arguments and intellectual discourse that led to Constitution's ratification. Jay also played a key role in shepherding the Constitution through the New York State Ratification Convention in the face of vigorous opposition. In this battle Jay relied not only on skillful political maneuvering, he also produced a pamphlet, "An Address to the People of New York," that powerfully restated the Federalist case for the new Constitution.
In 1789, Washington appointed John Jay Chief Justice of the new Supreme Court. Though none too pleased with the rigors of riding circuit, Jay used his position to expound upon the inviolability of contracts whether in the supportive climate of New England or the hostile environment of Virginia. He was always a committed nationalist, and indeed the opinion he rendered in Chisholm v. Georgia provoked the adoption of the states rights-oriented Eleventh Amendment. Throughout his time on the bench, Jay was an outspoken presence in national politics, actively interceding, for example, in the Genet affair of 1793.
In April of 1794, Washington selected John Jay to negotiate a treaty with Great Britain aimed at resolving outstanding issues between the two nations. The resulting "Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation," commonly referred to as the "Jay Treaty," was extremely controversial. Critics charged that it failed to address British imprisonment of American sailors or provide compensation for those slaves that the British had taken with them during the Revolutionary war. The Treaty's unpopularity played a significant role in the development of an organized opposition to the Federalists.
On his return from London in 1795, Jay discovered that, in his absence, he had been elected the new Governor of New York, a position that he had sought three years earlier only to be frustrated, in controversial circumstances, by the incumbent, George Clinton. During his two terms as governor, Jay confronted issues ranging from Indian affairs, to the fortification of the city's harbor in advance of a suspected French attack, to the construction of a new state prison.
On his retirement from public life in 1801, Jay maintained a close interest in state and national affairs, evidenced in his correspondence with his sons, Peter Augustus, who was active in local Federalist political circles, and William, who, among other things, became an outspoken abolitionist. In his retirement Jay also pursued a number of intellectual and benevolent interests, becoming President of the American Bible Society, maintaining an interest in the anti-slavery movement and keeping up a correspondence with agricultural reformers about latest developments in that field.
Jay died on May 17, 1829, at the age of 83. His longevity enabled biographers and early historians of the founding era to draw directly upon his personal recollections of the people and events of the early years of the nation. In his later years, Jay's own correspondence with various members of the founding generation revealed a keen interest in ensuring an accurate appraisal of his own role in the momentous events of that time.
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"I am commonly opposed to those who modestly assume the rank of champions of liberty, and make a very patriotic noise about the people. It is the stale artifice which has duped the world a thousand times, and yet, though detected, it is still successful. I love liberty as well as anybody. I am proud of it, as the true title of our people to distinction above others; but...I would guard it by making the laws strong enough to protect it." - Fisher Ames _________________________________________
OLIVER ELLSWORTH
OLIVER ELLSWORTH
"All good men wish the entire abolition of slavery, as soon as it can take place with safety to the public, and for the lasting good of the present wretched race of slaves, the only possible step that could be taken towards it by the convention was to fix a period after which they should not be imported." - Oliver Ellsworth_________________________________________
GEORGE MASON
"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." - George Mason (Co-Author of the Second Amendment)
"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." - George Mason (Co-Author of the Second Amendment)_________________________________________
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